Today, most, if not all, motor vehicles come with seats equipped with head restraints. Head restraints provide not only comfort for riders but also protection for an occupant's head and neck in case of an accident. As more is learned about injuries to the head and neck, there is more of a demand to provide safer head restraints with more protection against injuries.
Many head restraint arrangements in motor vehicles are stationary. They may move up or down to meet a height requirement for the occupant or there may be some pivoting movement, but often times there is little other movement. Recently, there has been a trend to provide motor vehicles with a more interactive head restraint arrangement in cases of rear impact so as to protect the occupant's head or neck more fully.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,043 discloses a headrest that moves forward to meet the head and neck in impact situations. U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,788 B1 discloses a head restraint arrangement whereby the cushion portion of a seat is rotated forward when impacted from the rear that in turn operates a spring associated with the headrest and seat back to bias the headrest against pivotal movement. U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,150 B1 discloses another more interactive head restraint arrangement. In that invention, mechanisms are activated when the occupant's torso applies a rearward load or force on a target in the seat, as would happen in a rear impact situation. This target in the seat is then connected to the head rest and the head rest is then moved upwards and forward to meet the head and neck, thereby reducing injuries to the occupant. U.S. Pat. No. 6,623,073 B2 discloses yet another interactive head restraint arrangement. In this invention, the headrest is able to move upwards and forward to meet the head and neck and moves up to increase headrest height.
The problem with many of the traditional headrests and the more interactive head restraint arrangements is that the size of the headrests tend to be quite large. The large size helps to protect an occupant's head but at the same time makes it more difficult to see around while driving. This can lead to many problems, including driver error.
This invention is an improvement to current existing technologies in this field as it solves the above problems by allowing the head restraint simply to flip-up in cases of impact. This flip-up motion allows the head restraint arrangement to move not only forward, but also upwards as well. The head restraint begins at a lower initial height to allow for improved vision around the head restraint and will simply flip-up to dynamically increase head restraint height so as to better meet the head in a rapid fashion.